Part 11 (1/2)

1 in Pisa.

1, rather poor and old, in Leyden.

1 in Stockholm.

1 in the Museum at Port Louis, on the island of Mauritius.

1 in the collection of the late Baron de Selys Longchamps.

1 in Genoa.

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NECROPSAR GUNTHER & NEWTON.

The authors state that this genus was very closely allied to _Fregilupus_, and, besides some minor differences, give as the princ.i.p.al difference the shorter and less curved bill.

NECROPSAR RODERICa.n.u.s GUNTH. & NEWT.

(PLATE 2, FIG. 2.)

_Necropsar roderica.n.u.s_ Gunther & Newton, Phil. Trans. vol. 168, p.

427, pl. XLII, figs. A-G (1879).

The original description given by the anonymous author of the ”Relation de l'Ile Rodrigue” is as follows:--”These birds are a little larger than a blackbird, and have white plumage, part of the wings and the tail black, the beak and the legs yellow, and make a wonderful warbling.” Our author also says they inhabited the Islet au Mat, and fed on seabirds' eggs and dead turtle.

The bird evidently became extinct on Rodriguez before 1730, and lingered a little longer on the outlying islets. Only known from bones, mostly collected by the Rev. H. H. Slater, and the above description.

Habitat: Rodriguez and neighbouring islets.

There is one tibia in the Tring Museum.

The figure is coloured according to the description, while the shape of the bird is evident from its bones and relation. {6}

NECROPSAR LEGUATI FORBES.

(PLATE 2, FIG. 3.)

_Necropsar leguati_ Forbes, Bull. Liverp. Mus. I, p. 34, pl.

_Sturnidae_ I (1897-1898).

Dr. Forbes' description is as follows:--”General colour white everywhere, except on the outer webs of distal half of the primaries and secondaries and the outer webs of the newly moulted and both webs of the unmoulted rectrices, which are marked with lighter or darker ferruginous.”

Dr. Forbes then gives an exhaustive description of the structure, to which I refer my readers, and the following measurements:--